Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.66

c8.66

Rāmānuja begins his *Vedārtha Saṃgraha* as well as his commentary on the *Bhagavadgītā* by paying his tribute of respect to Yāmunāchārya. A work of the latter, the *Siddhitraya*, is frequently quoted in Rāmānuja's works, and Rāmānuja generally follows the same lines of argument as we find in Yāmuna's work.² Yāmunāchārya in his turn was the spiritual successor of his grandfather Nāthamuni, the author of the *Nyāya Tattva* "an elaborate treatise covering the whole field of philosophy from the point of view of the Rāmānuja school."³ Nāthamuni again got his inspiration from the songs of the Ālvārs, especially from those of Saint Saṭakopa.⁴ The Ālvārs were saints or Bhaktas of various castes, who by their Tamil songs inculcated Bhakti and Kṛiṣhṇa-worship mainly.⁵ The *Bhagavadgītā* was well known to them and the *Bhāgavata* in some form also: "It . seems reasonable to conclude," says Mr. T. Rājagopāla Chariar, "that these Āḷvārs or the earlier of them were offshoots of the northern Bhāgavatas." Colebrooke gives an account of the Bhāgavatas in his *Miscellaneous Essays*.¹ The synonymy of the *Bhāgavata* sect is thus given in the *Pādma Tantra*, one of the 108 Tantras or *Saṃhitās* which constitute the sacred canon of an important section of Vaishṇavas :—